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The
crypt which Epifanio the abbot had built at San Vincenzo a Volturno,
between 824 and 842, is a small construction in the shape of a Latin
cross, covered with a barrel vault.
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The
frescoes pained: the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Martydom of
Saints Stephen and Lawrence, the blessing Christ. |
The walls are covered by frescoes
pained in a Byzantine-like style, which portray emblematic scenes of
Christianity: the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Pious Women and the
Angel at the Sepulchre, the Martyrdom of Saints Stephen and Lawrence,
then the blessing Christ and, amidst the Archangels, the enthroned
Madonna with the Baby Jesus, a procession of Virgins holding in their
hands gem-studded crowns, together with isolated holy figures. The crypt
was miraculously left unscathed by the incursion of the Saracens in 881
which, besides the death of about 500 monks, brought about the
destruction of the entire building.
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